Skill items

In Fire Emblem series games which feature the skills system, the teaching of new skills to units is traditionally handled through the use of special items. These comprise a set of items which, when used or otherwise applied to a unit, bestow upon that unit a new skill. Depending on the game, these items are either single-use, or can be unequipped from a unit to be applied to another at will. As these items have few unique characteristics of their own, they are all summarized here.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, due to its skills system being restricted to class skills, is the only game in the series to have a skills system that does not have skill items.

There exist no items which formally confer a skill upon a unit in the vein of later games in Genealogy of the Holy War. Instead, there are a number of bands and a few weapons which, when equipped* or in a unit's inventory*, give the unit the effect of the skill in question. The effect is tied to the item/weapon and is removed when it is deposited into storage or sold into the pawn shop. Similarly, when a ring/weapon is in the possession of a unit, the matching skill does not appear in the unit's skills list.

Thracia 776 introduced a series of skill manuals, single-use items which permanently teach their skill to a unit. The available range of skill manuals covers only a small portion of the skills present in Thracia, and of these there is only one of each manual available in the course of the game.

In addition to these, there are a number of weapons which, when equipped, temporarily confer a skill upon the wielder. This works the same as it did in Genealogy of the Holy War, with the skill being removed when the weapon is unequipped.

Skill items in Path of Radiance, now portrayed as scrolls instead of books, work mostly the same as in Thracia 776, save for the fact that they are partially integrated into the base's skills menu, and must accordingly be used there instead of at any time as an item. Skill scrolls are one-use only; like pre-existing skills, removing a scroll skill from a unit deletes it entirely and does not return the scroll to the player to be re-used.

Occult

The Occult scroll (Japanese: 奥義の書Esoteric Book) is the means by which mastery skills are assigned in Path of Radiance. Usable on any promotedbeorc unit or any laguz unit at level 15 or higher, Occult teaches a unit fitting these criteria a skill dependent on their class.

In Radiant Dawn, as in Path of Radiance skill scrolls are integrated as part of the game's skill organization system. While skill scrolls are treated as normal items when not in use, they are applied to units through the base's skills menu. The primary change from the Path of Radiance system is that, with the exception of rare locked skills, a unit's initial skills can be unequipped from the unit and not permanently lost. When unequipped they are turned into a skill scroll which can be reassigned at will to another unit; as such, almost every skill has a matching scroll, and those which don't are either concerned with a class's unique functionality (Critical +10 and Canto), individual character traits (Sacrifice and Mantle) or are mastery skills.

In Awakening, no skill-teaching items exist in the core game itself, with education in skills being based around individual units and their classes. Occasionally in the game's downloadable content packages, new skills are implemented into the game and are made available to the player through corresponding skill-teaching items also implemented by the DLC packages. Should these items be transferred through StreetPass to a copy of Awakening which has not purchased the corresponding DLC package, they would appear as the placeholder "Outrealm Item" and would not be able to be used. The items are of one-time use, but can be obtained a virtually infinite number of times by repeatedly completing their DLC chapter.

In addition to these, there are a number of weapons which, when equipped, temporarily confer a skill upon the wielder. This works the same as in Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776, with the skill being removed when the weapon is unequipped.

Cannot be used by base classes. If used by a special class, character must be level 35 minimum; if used by an advanced class, character must be level 15 minimum.

In addition to these, there are a number of weapons which, when equipped, temporarily confer a skill upon the wielder. This works the same as in Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, and Awakening, with the skill being removed when the weapon is unequipped.